Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

PLANIMETRIC — PLEASANTLY

PLANIMETRIC, PLANIMETRICAL, a. Pertaining to the mensuration of plain surfaces.

PLANIMETRY, n. [L. planus, plain, and Gr. to measure.]

The mensuration of plain surfaces, or that part of geometry which regards lines and plain figures, without considering their highth or depth.

PLANIPETALOUS, a. [L. planus, plain, and Gr. a petal.]

In botany, flat-leafed, as when the small flowers are hollow only at the bottom, but flat upwards, as in dandelion and succory.

PLANISH, v.t. [from plane.] To make smooth or plain; to polish; used by manufacturers.

PLANISHED, pp. Made smooth.

PLANISHING, ppr. Making smooth; polishing.

PLANISPHERE, n. [L. planus, plain, and sphere.] A sphere projected on a plane, in which sense, maps in which are exhibited the meridians and other circles, are planispheres.

PLANK, n. A broad piece of sawed timber, differing from a board only in being thicker. In America, broad pieces of sawed timber which are not more than an inch or an inch and a quarter thick, are called boards; like pieces from an inch and a half to three or four inches thick, are called planks. Sometimes pieces more than four inches thick are called planks.

PLANK, v.t. To cover or lay with planks; as, to plank a floor or a ship.

PLANNED, pp. Devised; schemed.

PLANNER, n. One who plans or forms a plan; a projector.

PLANNING, ppr. Scheming; devising; making a plan.

PLANO-CONICAL, a. [plain and conical.]

Plain or level on one side and conical on the other.

PLANO-CONVEX, a. [plain and convex.] Plain or flat on one side and convex on the other; as a plano-convex lens.

PLANOHORIZONTAL, a. Having a level horizontal surface or position.

PLANO-SUBULATE, a. [See Subulate.] Smooth and awl-shaped.

PLANT, n. [L. planta; splendeo, splendor.]

1. A vegetable; an organic body, destitute of sense and spontaneous motion, adhering to another body in such a manner as to draw from it its nourishment, and having the power of propagating itself by seeds; “whose seed is in itself.” Genesis 1:11-12. This definition may not be perfectly correct, as it respects all plants, for some marine plants grow without being attached to any fixed body.

The woody or dicotyledonous plants consist of three parts; the bark or exterior coat, which covers the wood; the wood which is hard and constitutes the principal part; and the pith or center of the stem. In monocotyledonous plants, the ligneous or fibrous parts, and the pithy or parenchymatous, are equally distributed through the whole internal substance; and in the lower plants, funguses, sea weed, etc. the substance is altogether parenchymatous. By means of proper vessels, the nourishing juices are distributed to every part of the plant. In its most general sense, plant comprehends all vegetables, trees, shrubs, herbs, grasses, etc. In popular language, the word is generally applied to the smaller species of vegetables.

2. A sapling.

3. In Scripture, a child; a descendant; the inhabitant of a country. Psalm 144:12; Jeremiah 48:32.

4. The sole of the foot. [Little used.]

Sea-plant, a plant that grows in the sea or in salt water; sea weed.

Sensitive plant, a plant that shrinks on being touched, the mimosa.

PLANT, v.t. To put in the ground and cover, as seed for growth; as, to plant maiz.

1. To set in the ground for growth, as a young tree or a vegetable with roots.

2. To engender; to set the germ of any thing that may increase.

It engenders choler, planteth anger.

3. To set; to fix.

His standard planted on Laurentum’s towers.

4. To settle; to fix the first inhabitants; to establish; as, to plant a colony.

5. To furnish with plants; to lay out and prepare with plants; as, to plant a garden or an orchard.

6. To set and direct or point; as, to plant cannon against a fort.

7. To introduce and establish; as, to plant christianity among the heathen.

I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 1 Corinthians 3:6.

8. To unite to Christ and fix in a state of fellowship with him. Psalm 92:13.

PLANT, v.i. To perform the act of planting.

PLANTABLE, a. Capable of being planted.

PLANTAGE, n. [L. plantago.] An herb, or herbs in general. [Not in use.]

PLANTAIN, n. [L. plantago.] A plant of the genus Plantago, of several species. The water plantain is of the genus Alisma.

PLANTAIN, PLANTAIN-TREE, n. A tree of the genus Musa, the most remarkable species of which are, the paradisiaca or plantain, and the sapietum or banana tree. The plantain rises with a soft stem fifteen or twenty feet high, and the fruit is a substitute for bread.

PLANTAL, a. Belonging to plants. [Not used.]

PLANTATION, n. [L. plantatio, from planto, to plant.]

1. The act of planting or setting in the earth for growth.

2. The place planted; applied to ground planted with trees, as an orchard or the like.

3. In the United States and the West Indies, a cultivated estate; a farm. In the United States, this word is applied to an estate, a tract of land occupied and cultivated, in those states only where the labor is performed by slaves, and where the land is more or less appropriated to the culture of tobacco, rice, indigo and cotton, that is, from Maryland to Georgia inclusive, on the Atlantic, and in the western states where the land is appropriated to the same articles or to the culture of the sugar cane. From Maryland, northward and eastward, estates in land are called farms.

4. An original settlement in a new country; a town or village planted.

While these plantations were forming in Connecticut--

5. A colony.

6. A first planting; introduction; establishment; as the plantation of christianity in England.

PLANT-CANE, n. In the West Indies, the original plants of the sugar cane, produced from germs placed in the ground; or canes of the first growth, in distinction from the ratoons, or sprouts from the roots of canes which have been cut.

PLANTED, pp. Set in the earth for propagation; set; fixed; introduced; established.

1. Furnished with seeds or plants for growth; as a planted field.

2. Furnished with the first inhabitants; settled; as territory planted with colonists.

3. Filled or furnished with what is new.

A man in all the world’s new fashion planted. [See Def. 3.]

PLANTER, n. One that plants, sets, introduces or establishes; as a planter of maiz; a planter of vines; the planters of a colony.

1. One that settles in a new or uncultivated territory; as the first planters in Virginia.

2. One who owns a plantation; used in the West Indies and southern states of America.

3. One that introduces and establishes.

The apostles were the first planters of christianity.

PLANTERSHIP, n. The business of a planter, or the management of a plantation, as in the West Indies.

PLANTICLE, n. A young plant or plant in embryo.

PLANTING, ppr. Setting in the earth for propagation; setting; settling; introducing; establishing.

PLANTING, n. The act or operation of setting in the ground for propagation, as seeds, trees, shrubs, etc.

PLANT-LOUSE, n. An insect that infests plants; a vine fretter; the puceron.

PLASH, n. [Gr. superabundant moisture.]

1. A small collection of standing water; a puddle.

2. The branch of a tree partly cut or lopped and bound to other branches.

PLASH, v.i. To dabble in water; usually splash.

PLASH, v.t. [L. plico, to fold.] To interweave branches; as, to plash a hedge or quicksets. [In New England, to splice.]

PLASHING, ppr. Cutting and interweaving, as branches in a hedge.

PLASHING, n. The act or operation of cutting and lopping small trees and interweaving them, as in hedges.

PLASHY, a. Watery; abounding with puddles.

PLASM, n. [Gr. to form.] A mold or matrix in which any thing is cast or formed to a particular shape. [Little used.]

PLASMA, n. A silicious mineral of a color between grass green and leek green, occurring in angular pieces in beds, associated with common chalcedony, and among the ruins of Rome.

PLASMATIC, PLASMATICAL, a. Giving shape; having the power of giving form.

PLASTER, n. [L. emplastrum; Gr. to daub or smear, properly to lay or spread on; to daub or to fashion, mold or shape.]

1. A composition of lime, water and sand, well mixed into a kind of paste and used for coating walls and partitions of houses. This composition when dry becomes hard, but still retains the name of plaster. Plaster is sometimes made of different materials, as chalk, gypsum, etc. and is sometimes used to parget the whole surface of a building.

2. In pharmacy, an external application of a harder consistence than an ointment, to be spread, according to different circumstances, either on linen or leather.

Plaster of Paris, a composition of several species of gypsum dug near Montmartre, near Paris in France, used in building and in casting busts and statues. In popular language, this name is applied improperly to plaster-stone, or to any species of gypsum.

PL`ASTER, v.t. To overlay with plaster, as the partitions of a house, walls, etc.

1. To cover with plaster, as a wound.

2. In popular language, to smooth over; to cover or conceal defects or irregularities.

PLASTERED, pp. Overlaid with plaster.

PLASTERER, n. One that overlays with plaster.

1. One that makes figures in plaster.

PLASTERING, ppr. Covering with or laying on plaster.

PL`ASTERING, n. The act or operation of overlaying with plaster.

1. The plaster-work of a building; a covering of plaster.

PLASTER-STONE, n. Gypsum, which see. This when pulverized is extensively used as a manure.

PLASTIC, a. [Gr. to form.] Having the power to give form or fashion to a mass of matter; as the plastic hand of the Creator; the plastic virtue of nature.

PLASTICITY, n. The quality of giving form or shape to matter.

PLASTRON, n. [See Plaster.] A piece of leather stuffed; used by fencers to defend the body against pushes.

PLAT, v.t. [from plait, or plat, flat.]

To weave; to form by texture. Matthew 27:29.

PLAT, PLATTING, n. Work done by platting or interweaving.

PLAT, n. [L. latus; or from the root of place.] A small piece of ground, usually a portion of flat even ground; as a flowery plat; a plat of willows.

PLAT, a. Plain; flat. [Not used.]

PLAT, adv. Plainly; flatly; downright. [Not used.]

1. Smoothly; evenly. [Not used.]

PLATANE, n. [L. platanus.] The planetree, which see.

PLATBAND, n. A border of flowers in a garden, along a wall or the side of a parterre.

1. In architecture, a flat square molding whose highth much exceeds its projecture, such as the faces of an architrave.

2. The lintel of a door or window.

3. A list or fillet between the flutings of a column.

PLATE, n. [L. Latus, with the radical sense of laid, spread.]

1. A piece of metal, flat or extended in breadth.

2. Armor of plate, composed of broad pieces, and thus distinguished from mail.

3. A piece of wrought silver, as a dish or other shallow vessel; hence, vessels of silver; wrought silver in general. Plate, by the laws of some states, is subject to a tax by the ounce.

4. A small shallow vessel, made of silver or other metal, or of earth glazed and baked, from which provisions are eaten at table. A wooden plate is called a trencher.

5. The prize given for the best horse in a race.

6. In architecture, the piece of timber which supports the ends of the rafters. [See Platform.]

PLATE, v.t. To cover or overlay with plate or with metal; used particularly of silver; as plated vessels.

1. To arm with plate or metal for defense; as, to plate sin with gold.

Why plated in habiliments of war?

2. To adorn with place; as a plated harness.

3. To beat into thin flat pieces or lamens.

PLATED, pp. Covered or adorned with plate; armed with plate; beaten into plates.

PLATEN, n. [from its flatness.] Among printers, the flat part of a press by which the impression is made.

PLATEY, a. Like a plate; flat.

PLATFORM, n. [plat, flat, form.] The sketch of any thing horizontally delineated; the ichnography.

1. A place laid out after any model.

2. In the military art, an elevation of earth or a floor of wood or stone, on which cannons are mounted to fire on an enemy.

3. In architecture, a row of beams or a piece of timber which supports the timber-work of a roof, and lying on the top of the wall.

This in New England is called the plate.

4. A kind of terrace or broad smooth open walk on the top of a building, as in the oriental houses.

5. In ships, the orlop. [See Orlop.]

6. Any number of planks or other materials forming a floor for any purpose.

7. A plan; a scheme; ground-work.

8. In some of the New England states, an ecclesiastical constitution, or a plan for the government of churches; as the Cambridge or Saybrook platform.

Platic aspect, in astrology, a ray cast from one planet to another, not exactly, but within the orbit of its own light.

PLATINA, PLATINUM, n. A metal discovered in the mines of Choco in Peru, nearly of the color of silver, but less bright, and the heaviest of the metals. Its specific gravity is to that of water as 23 to 1. It is harder than iron, undergoes no alteration in air, resists the action of acids and alkalies, is very ductile and capable of being rolled into thin plates.

PLATING, ppr. Overlaying with plate or with a metal; beating into thin lamens.

PLATING, n. The art or operation of covering any thing with plate or with a metal, particularly of overlaying a baser metal with a thin plate of silver. The coating of silver is soldered to the metal with tin or a mixture of three parts of silver with one of brass.

PLATINIFEROUS, a. [platina and fero, to produce.]

Producing patina; as platiniferous sand.

PLATONIC, a. Pertaining to Plato the philosopher, or to his philosophy, his school or his opinions.

Platonic love, is a pure spiritual affection subsisting between the sexes, unmixed with carnal desires, and regarding the mind only and its excellencies; a species of love for which Plato was a warm advocate.

Platonic year, the great year, or a period of time determines by the revolution of the equinoxes, or the space of time in which the stars and constellations return to their former places in respect to the equinoxes. This revolution, which is calculated by the precession of the equinoxes, is accomplished in about 25,000 years.

PLATONICALLY, adv. After the manner of Plato.

PLATONISM, n. The philosophy of Plato, consisting of three branches, theology, physics and mathematics. Under theology is included moral philosophy. The foundation of Plato’s theology is the opinion that there are two eternal, primary, independent and incorruptible principles or causes of all things, and matter, from which all things are made. It was a fundamental maxim with him that from nothing, nothing can proceed. While therefore he held God to be the maker of the universe, he held matter, the substance of which the universe was made, to be eternal.

PLATONIST, PLATONIZER, n. One that adheres to the philosophy of Plato; a follower of Plato.

PLATONIZE, v.i. To adopt the opinions or philosophy of Plato.

PLATONIZE, v.t. To explain on the principles of the Platonic school, or to accommodate to those principles.

PLATONIZED, pp. Accommodated to the philosophy of Plato.

PLATONIZING, ppr. Adopting the principles of Plato; accommodating to the principles of the Platonic school.

PLATOON, n. A small square body of soldiers or musketeers, drawn out of a battalion of foot when they form a hollow square, to strengthen the angles; or a small body acting together, but separate from the main body; as, to fire by platoons.

PLATTER, n. [from plate.] A large shallow dish for holding the provisions of a table.

1. One that plats or forms by weaving. [See Plat.]

PLATTER-FACED, a. Having a broad face.

PLATTING, ppr. Weaving; forming by texture.

PLATYPUS, n. A quadruped of New Holland, whose jaws are elongated into the shape of a duck’s bill. The body is covered with thick hair and the feet are webbed.

This animal has been arranged with the Mammalia, but it is now presumed to be oviparous; at least its breasts have not hitherto been observed.

PLAUDIT, n. [L. plaudo, to praise, said to be taken from plaudite, a demand of applause by players when they left the stage.]

Applause; praise bestowed.

PLAUSIBILITY, n. s as z. [See Plausible.] Speciousness; superficial appearance of right.

PLAUSIBLE, a. s as z. [L. plausibilis, from plaudo, to clap hands in token of approbation; laus, laudo; Eng. loud.]

1. That may be applauded; that may gain favor or approbation; hence, superficially pleasing; apparently right; specious; popular; as a plausible argument; a plausible pretext; a plausible doctrine.

2. Using specious arguments or discourse; as a plausible man.

PLAUSIBLENESS, n. Speciousness; show of right or propriety; as the plausibleness of Arminianism.

PLAUSIBLY, adv. With fair show; speciously; in a matter adapted to gain favor or approbation.

They could talk plausibly about what they did not understand.

PLAUSIVE, a. Applauding; manifesting praise.

1. Plausible.

PLAY, v.i.

1. To use any exercise for pleasure or recreation; to do something not as a task or for profit, but for amusement; as, to play at cricket.

The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. Exodus 32:6.

2. To sport; to frolick; to frisk.

The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to day,

Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?

3. To toy; to act with levity.

4. To trifle; to act wantonly and thoughtlessly.

Men are apt to play with their healths and their lives as they do with their clothes.

5. To do something fanciful; to give a fanciful turn to; as, to play upon words.

6. To make sport, or practice sarcastic merriment.

I would make use of it rather to play upon those I despise, than trifle with those I love.

7. To mock; to practice illusion.

Art thou alive,

Or is it fancy plays upon our eyesight?

8. To contend in a game; as, to play at cards or dice; to play for diversion; to play for money.

9. To practice a trick or deception.

His mother played false with a smith.

10. To perform on an instrument of music; as, to play on a flute, a violin or a harpsichord.

Play, my friend, and charm the charmer.

11. To move, or to move with alternate dilatation and contraction.

The heart beats, the blood circulates, the lungs play.

12. To operate; to act. The engines play against a fire.

13. To move irregularly; to wanton.

Ev’n as the waving sedges play with wind.

The setting sun

Plays on their shining arms and burnish’d helmets.

All fame is foreign, but of true desert,

Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart.

14. To act a part on the stage; to personate a character.

A lord will hear you play to-night.

15. To represent a standing character.

Courts are theaters where some men play.

16. To act in any particular character; as, to play the fool; to play the woman; to play the man.

17. To move in any manner; to move one way and another; as any part of a machine.

PLAY, v.t. To put in action or motion; as, to play cannon or a fire-engine.

1. To use an instrument of music; as, to play the flute or the organ.

2. To act a sportive part or character.

Nature here

Wanton’d as in her prime, and play’d at will

Her virgin fancies.

3. To act or perform by representing a character; as, to play a comedy; to play the part of king Lear.

4. To act; to perform; as, to play our parts well on the stage of life.

5. To perform in contest for amusement or for a prize; as, to play a game at whist.

To play off, to display; to show; to put in exercise; as, to play off tricks.

To play on or upon, to deceive; to mock or to trifle with.

1. To give a fanciful turn to.

PLAY, n. Any exercise or series of actions intended for pleasure, amusement or diversion, as at cricket or quoit, or at blind man’s buff.

1. Amusement; sport; frolic; gambols.

Two gentle fawns at play.

2. Game; gaming; practice of contending for victory, for amusement or for a prize, as at dice, cards or billiards.

3. Practice in any contest; as sword-play.

He was resolved not to speak distinctly, knowing his best play to be in the dark.

John naturally loved rough play.

4. Action; use; employment; office.

--But justifies the next who comes in play.

5. Practice; action; manner of acting in contest or negotiation; as fair play; foul play.

6. A dramatic composition; a comedy or tragedy; a composition in which characters are represented by dialogue and action.

A play ought to be a just image of human nature.

7. Representation or exhibition of a comedy or tragedy; as, to be at the play. He attends every play.

8. Performance on an instrument of music.

9. Motion; movement, regular or irregular; as the play of a wheel or piston.

10. State of agitation or discussion.

Many have been sav’d, and many may,

Who never heard this question brought in play.

11. Room for motion.

The joints are let exactly into one another, that they have no play between them.

12. Liberty of acting; room for enlargement or display; scope; as, to give full play to mirth. Let the genius have free play.

PLAYBILL, n. A printed advertisement of a play, with the parts assigned to the actors.

PLAYBOOK, n. A book of dramatic compositions.

PLAY-DAY, PLAYING-DAY, n. A day given to play or diversion; a day exempt from work.

PLAYDEBT, n. A debt contracted by gaming.

PLAYED, pp. Acted; performed; put in motion.

PLAYER, n. One who plays in any game or sport.

1. An idler.

2. An actor of dramatic scenes; one whose occupation is to imitate characters on the stage.

3. A mimic.

4. One who performs on an instrument of music.

5. A gamester.

6. One that acts a part in a certain manner.

PLAYFELLOW, n. A companion in amusements or sports.

PLAYFUL, a. Sportive; given to levity; as a playful child.

1. Indulging a sportive fancy; as a playful genius.

PLAYFULLY, adv. In a sportive manner.

PLAYFULNESS, n. Sportiveness.

PLAYGAME, n. Play of children.

PLAYHOUSE, n. A house appropriated to the exhibition of dramatic compositions; a theater.

PLAYMATE, n. A playfellow; a companion in diversions.

PLAY-PLEASURE, n. Idle amusement. [Not used.]

PLAYSOME, a. Playful; wanton.

PLAYSOMENESS, n. Playfulness; wantonness.

PLAYTHING, n. A toy; any thing that serves to amuse.

A child knows his nurse, and by degrees the playthings of a little more advanced age.

PLAYWRIGHT, n. A maker of plays.

PLEA, n. [L. lis, litis.]

1. In law, that which is alleged by a party in support of his demand; but in a more limited and technical sense, the answer of the defendant to the plaintiff’s declaration and demand. That which the plaintiff alleges in his declaration is answered and repelled or justified by the defendant’s plea. Pleas are dilatory, or pleas to the action. Dilatory pleas, are to the jurisdiction of the court, to the disability of the plaintiff, or in abatement. Pleas to the action are an answer to the merits of the complaint, which confesses or denies it. Pleas that deny the plaintiff’s complaint or demand, are the general issue, which denies the whole declaration; or special pleas in bar, which state something which precludes the plaintiff’s right of recovery.

2. A cause in court; a lawsuit, or a criminal process; as the pleas of the crown; the court of common pleas.

The supreme judicial court shall have cognizance of pleas real, personal and mixed.

3. That which is alleged in defense or justification; an excuse; an apology; as the tyrant’s plea.

When such occasions are,

No plea must serve; ‘tis cruelty to spare.

4. Urgent prayer or entreaty.

PLEACH, v.t. [L. plico.] To bend; to interweave. [Not in use.]

PLEAD, v.i. [See Plea.] In a general sense, to argue in support of a claim, or in defense against the claim of another.

1. In law, to present an answer to the declaration of a plaintiff; to deny the plaintiff’s declaration and demand, or to allege facts which show that he ought not to recover in the suit. The plaintiff declares or alleges; the defendant pleads to his declaration. The king or the state prosecutes an offender, and the offender pleads not guilty, or confesses the charge.

2. To urge reasons for or against; to attempt to persuade one by argument or supplication; as, to plead for the life of a criminal; to plead in his favor; to plead with a judge or with a father.

O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbor! Job 16:21.

3. To supplicate with earnestness.

4. To urge; to press by operating on the passions.

Since you can love, and yet your error see,

The same resistless power may plead for me.

PLEAD, v.t. To discuss, defend and attempt to maintain by arguments or reasons offered to the tribunal or person who has the power of determining; as, to plead a cause before a court or jury. In this sense, argue is more generally used by lawyers.

1. To allege or adduce in proof, support or vindication. The law of nations may be pleaded in favor of the rights of embassadors.

2. To offer in excuse.

I will neither plead my age nor sickness in excuse of faults.

3. To allege and offer in a legal plea or defense, or for repelling a demand in law; as, to plead usury; to plead a statute of limitations.

4. In Scripture, to plead the cause of the righteous, as God, is to avenge or vindicate them against enemies, or to redress their grievances. Isaiah 51:22.

PLEADABLE, a. That may be pleaded; that may be alleged in proof, defense or vindication; as a right or privilege pleadable at law.

PLEADED, pp. Offered or urged in defense; alleged in proof or support.

PLEADER, n. One who argues in a court of justice.

1. One that forms pleas or pleadings; as a special pleader.

2. One that offers reasons for or against; one that attempts to maintain by arguments.

So fair a pleader any cause may gain.

PLEADING, ppr. Offering in defense; supporting by arguments or reasons; supplicating.

PLEADING, n. The art of supporting by arguments, or of reasoning to persuade.

PLEADINGS, n. In law, the mutual altercations between the plaintiff and defendant, or written statements of the parties in support of their claims, comprehending the declaration, count or narration of the plaintiff, the plea of the defendant in reply, the replication of the plaintiff to the defendant’s plea, the defendant’s rejoinder, the plaintiff’s sur-rejoinder, the defendant’s rebutter, the plaintiff’s sur-rebutter, etc. till the question is brought to issue, that is, to rest on a single point.

PLEASANCE, n. plez’ance. [See Please.] Gayety; pleasantry; merriment.

PLEASANT, a. plez’ant.

1. Pleasing; agreeable; grateful to the mind or to the senses; as a pleasant ride; a pleasant voyage; a pleasant view. Light is pleasant to the eye; an orange is pleasant to the taste; harmony is pleasant to the ear; a rose is pleasant to the smell.

How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! Psalm 133:1.

2. Cheerful; enlivening; as pleasant society or company.

3. Gay; lively; humorous; sportive; as a pleasant companion.

4. Trifling; adapted rather to mirth than use.

5. Giving pleasure; gratifying.

This word expresses less than delightful, to the mind, and delicious, to the taste.

PLEASANTLY, adv. plez’antly. In such a manner as to please or gratify.

1. Gayly; merrily; in good humor.

2. Lightly; ludicrously.